Hopkins Chooses Orbital Sciences Corp. To Build
Spacecraft

The Johns Hopkins University -- selected by NASA to conduct the
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission -- has
awarded Orbital Sciences Corp. a $37 million contract to develop
the FUSE spacecraft system.

Planned for a 1998 launch into Earth orbit, the three-year FUSE
mission will open a new window on the universe through high
resolution, long-term observations in the far ultraviolet range
of the spectrum. Astronomers anticipate important new findings
about the evolution of galaxies, stars and planetary systems.

Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC), based in Dulles, Va., will build
the FUSE spacecraft primarily at its Space Operations Division in
Germantown, Md.

Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.,
is managing the spacecraft contract. Hopkins has full
responsibility for FUSE mission development and operation, under
the direction of principal investigator Warren Moos, chairman of
the Hopkins Department of Physics and Astronomy. The overall NASA
contract is administered by the Explorer Project Office at
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

FUSE brings new aerospace activity to Maryland. Five key members
of the team are located in the state, Moos said. Besides Johns
Hopkins, Orbital Sciences and Goddard Space Flight Center, other
Maryland participants include NASA's Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore, and Swales & Associates Inc., an
aerospace engineering firm in Beltsville.

The $37 million contract with OSC is the result of a competitive
procurement process mandated by federal guidelines. The FUSE
mission was restructured by NASA in 1994 to reduce its cost and
accelerate its launch date by two years.

"Orbital Sciences' credible and viable proposal was responsive to
the project's needs," said Ted Mueller, FUSE spacecraft manager
at APL. "JHU has full confidence in the company's ability to
perform."

As part of the innovative restructuring of the mission, FUSE
science planning and satellite operations were centralized at
Johns Hopkins. The mission control center will be located in the
university's Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy on the
Homewood campus in Baltimore.

The FUSE instrument -- a high resolution, far-ultraviolet
spectrograph designed and built under the direction of Hopkins --
is more sensitive than previously flown instruments. Observations
must be conducted from above the Earth's atmosphere, which
absorbs radiation in the far ultraviolet wavelengths.

Astronomical objects from the farthest reaches of the universe to
our own solar system reveal details about their composition,
velocity, and temperature by the ultraviolet radiation they emit.
One of FUSE's major goals is to determine the abundance in space
of deuterium, a signature "fossil nucleus" formed during the
cataclysmic creation of the universe.

"By measuring deuterium, we should be able to determine
conditions in the primordial fireball about three minutes after
the Big Bang," Moos said.

Among other observations that can only be made in the far
ultraviolet are those involving molecular hydrogen -- the primary
constituent of the cold interstellar medium in which protostars
and planets are formed -- and the hot interstellar medium, which
occupies about half of the volume of interstellar space. The FUSE
team will pursue a broad range of goals, from observations aimed
at learning more about the birth of the universe, to studies
focusing on the evolution of galaxies, the nature of a star's
outer layers and the dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere.

The FUSE project is an international effort, with contributions
from the space agencies of Canada and France. Also participating
are the University of Colorado and the University of California
at Berkeley.

Hopkins students will help in the testing of the far ultraviolet
spectrograph and with mission operations. High school students
from Baltimore will also participate in the mission, through a
cooperative program with the city school system.

The mission is subject to NASA approval following an intensive
review scheduled for October 1995. Orbital Sciences' deadline for
delivery of the spacecraft is April 1, 1998. Launch is
tentatively set for autumn of 1998 at Cape Canaveral Air Station
in Florida.

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